Writing Contemporary Fiction in the 21st C. Might Not Be Your True Calling If… Every character is Anglo (or every human character is Anglo in Sci-Fi). There are no LGBTQ characters or families. There are no physically or developmentally challenged characters. Perfect is used to describe human bodies, personalities, relationships or families. Financially poor characters are inherently ignorant, lazy, and predisposed to bad actions. Christianity is revered as a legitimate religion while all others are impugned. Strong and powerful character traits are segregated into masculine and feminine distinctions. Emphasis is placed on female characters’ clothing sizes, weight, shoe sizes, slender anything; pale, milk or pearl white skin and beautiful blonde hair. References to doing something like a girl or being a woman are offered as insults. Single female characters are referred to or think of themselves

I I v Confession: Geraldo Rivera's beliefs about what "... a woman brings to a marriage more than anything else, to a relationship, is her youth. Youth is a fragile and diminishing resource..." didn't surprise me. In recent years, it's been his clueless comments about wearing hoodies in the Trayvon Martin killing, his ill-advised naked selfie post (Who does he think he is--James Franco?), and now proclaiming this 18th-century attitude that have swung the media spotlight his way--not the excellent journalistic relevance of many years ago.    BATAF: A woman's value decreases as she ages, while a man's increases.